rw-Craiglist made me think!

I found the CL posts about it.  Wow, what a terribly sad situation.  IMO, the rescue should absolutely return the dog to his original owner.  Oh, my heart is breaking for that little boy!

 If she thinks she has a legitimate gripe, my advice would be for her to contact her local TV station's investigative reporter.  If the rescue is embarrassed enough, and her home is ok, they may relent and give the dog back.

I think that she should get the dog back.  It is obviously her dog.  After daycare losing my brother's dog, I can honestly say things happen that are beyond our control, & dogs get loose. 

I do think that it would be reasonable for the owner to reimburse rescue whatever her regular vet had estimated for the hematoma repair, since it was scheduled anyway.  If I were rescue, I would be leary of working out a payment plan.  I think & expect the worst from people, & as jaded as this may sound, when someone says "I can do it on a payment plan"  I hear "Thanks for taking care of my dog.  I have no intention of paying for it though."  That is probably caused by working at a vet clinic for a while..

I think that most rescues automatically assume the worst when they get a new dog.  I'm not saying that, that is good or bad, I'm just saying that, in my experience working with rescues, they do tend to assume that the dog was neglected or abused as opposed to lost & having a loving owner looking for it.

I've worked with rescues too and yes, they do tend to jump to conclusions, and often the wrong ones.

I agree that the owner should pay what her vet would have charged for the surgery.  Other than that?  The rescue should apologize and return her animal.  And, Annes suggestion is really solid.

 With regular property, you can bring a legal action to recover if you can identify it.  Trying to keep it can be labeled criminal conversion. which is a crime.  To keep the lawyers happy, there are hoops to jump through to make the charge.  With a pet, the law is probably different.  I would think that a rescue would be thrilled to place the dog back with its family, but contact with a rescue site has taught  me that some of them view all people as the enemy and they view anybody who loses a pet as negligent.  Some of them apparently can walk on water.  Most seem to be reasonable, though, and I would think the threat of bad publicity on this would make them willing to negotiate a fair settlement.  The sight of a little kid crying outside their shelter spread on TV.....

The original owner should have to pay the vet fees, and that could be handled with a contract using the dog as collateral.  With criminal conversion, if a purchaser in good faith puts in improvements worth more than the original value, they get to keep possession but may have to reimburse the original owner.  As an animal is involved, there are probably specific statutes involved spelling out who gets what.

 They absolutely should give the dog back to this poor kid. The woman said she was going to have surgery for the ear, and was only using that as a means to id him. You can't judge based on what condition he was in at the shelter how he was kept in the home, particularly if the pictures show him in a good condition. The holier than though attitude of this rescue is I think a reason why many are deterred from dealing with rescues. It tempts me to get try to figure out what rescue group this is and send them a strongly worded letter. I know from experience, the rescue will probably make some issue over the autistic child. One of my client's family's gave up on trying to get a rescue dog because of the attitude of the rescue people about this child. This boy has never done anything to hurt the dog. Now I'm all angry, I shouldn't have opened this thread.

As long as she was not abusing/neglecting the dog according to the state statutes, then yes she "deserves" the dog back because it's hers!  As far as I am aware, a rescue group is not a court of law and it is not within their right to label the dog neglected.  If they truly felt so, the claim should be made to the county shelter or whoever handles such matters, surrender the dog to them and let them sort it out.

If you see my other thread, we found a dog this weekend.  The dog had been hit by a car, returned by the police, and not taken to a vet.  Then he got loose again and we caught him.  We didn't want to give him back but that's not our call.  We gave him back to the owner.  Whether or not I feel there is neglect will be between me and the county animal control/police dept. but I don't get to just keep someone else's dog because of how I feel about it.

Can you imagine what the poor kid must be going through.  I'd be beyond angry if they said this to me.  I'd be pushing htis with everything I could think of....the reported/news sounds like a very good idea though.  OR you could always call the IRS on the person at the rescue and make her life a living hell!!  LOL

Stories like this make me sick.  Who does this rescue think they are!!  Sorry, but my very bad experience being denied by a resuce before we got Charlie has left me a very bad taste in my mouth.  I bet they would have given him back if they had the cash up front to pay for the vet bill.  Sounds dirty to me.

The local news definitely needs to be notified of this!  That poor little boy.  Have they no shame!

 I agree. I'd be calling the news, showing the CL ads and photos, and letting them know that even paying for the surgery, the rescue wouldn't give the dog back.  In fact, I might even call the police.

I have two dogs with medical issues that might end up much worse if they were to escape and be out in the world for a few days. I would certainly hope that, if they were found, they'd be treated for whatever issues needed treating, but I'd also want them back. They're MY dogs, and I take very good care of them. People wait a week to do an expensive surgery, and they're bad owners? Please.

 Morally, they should give the dog back as it clearly is the family's dog.  Legally, I don't think they have to though.  Once they pull it from the shelter the dog has gone into the legal custody of the rescue.  As far as I know, it would be no different if a person adopted the dog straight from the shelter after the period of time they hold it for owners to claim it.  A private person would not be required to give the dog back once they adopted it, and I don't know that the rescue would either.

Again, I'm not saying that they should not return the dog, because they definitely should.  Heck, Jack would be a limping fool after a week with no supplements or tramadol.......